using System;

using System.Linq;

using System.Xml.Linq;

​

public class Program

{

    public static void Main()

    {

        const string xml = @"

<food>

  <child>

    <nested />

  </child>

  <child>

    <other>

    </other>

  </child>

</food>

";

        // dump

        var root = XElement.Parse(xml);

​

        Dump(root, 0);

        Console.WriteLine();

        // modify

        var doc = XDocument.Parse(xml);

​

        var target = doc.Descendants("nested").Single();

        target.Value = "some text";

        Console.WriteLine(doc.ToString());

    }

​

    private static void Dump(XElement element, int level)

    {

        var space = new string(' ', level * 4);

​

        if (element.HasElements)

        {

            Console.WriteLine("{0}startParent_{1}", space, element.Name);

​

            foreach (var child in element.Elements())

            {

                Dump(child, level + 1);

            }

​

            Console.WriteLine("{0}endParent_{1}", space, element.Name);

        }

        else

        {

            Console.WriteLine("{0}{1}", space, element.Name);

        }

    }

}